I’m sick
After having symptoms akin to whopping cough, I went to the doctor the other day and found out I have bronchitis. A coworker was kind enough to recommend an urgent care clinic close to home, so, since work email was down for about a day and half, I figured I might as well.
Urgent care, for the record, is a bit like the Kmarts of hospitals. They also seem to be under the mysterious impression that sick people enjoy waiting. You’d think, given our general state of sickness & having to deviate from our normal lives, that would realize we’re more grumpy than usual & are even less happy waiting.
Yet, that’s what I did. Wait. I waited two and half hours before being called. Then, once called, I waited twenty minutes in a room for a doctor to actually show up. After deciding that I needed a prescription, I had to wait fifteen minutes to get it. Taking the prescription to CVS, I had to wait twenty minutes to get it filled. Mollie once told me I had a problem with waiting just for a restaurant, so you can imagine how annoyed I was with this.
The doctor visit itself was extremely short. He stayed, for, what, three, four minutes top? He diagnosed me with bronchitis, said I needed a prescription & that he would be right back — out the door before I could say anything. On his return, I figured I could ask him some of the questions bouncing around my head: How does one get bronchitis? How did he know I have it? Am I contagious?
After waiting the fifteen minutes, the door opened again. Only instead of being the doctor it was a nurse returning with my prescription and a form. The form had a few checkboxes filled out telling me to follow up wit my primary physicians should the symptoms worsen, not much else. Annoyed & cranky, I decided to just ask the nurse my questions although she seemed surprised & unprepared. The main thing I found out was that is was fine to go to work, but couldn’t really tell me how they knew & how I caught it.
After explaining to my mom the steps the doctor had gone through, she explained the diagnosis was probably based on listening to my lungs. I still don’t know how I got it, but I’m blaming it on Disneyland. While waiting in line for Star Tours with my sister, I had my hand on the railing. It’s dark, so moving forward, I didn’t notice part of the railing was covered in some sort of liquid and slid my hand right through it. What is was, I still don’t know & still don’t want to. Lord knows what could have come out of one of those children. It was pretty gross at the time, so my only concern was getting it off of me, repeatedly wiping my hand on the legs of my jeans.
Morale of the story: 1) avoid urgent care facilities, and 2) don’t touch anything in the dark at Disneyland.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Do you have a PCP? You should have called them and asked for an appointment. If not you need a PCP and a complete physical, get you Cholesteral checked while you’re at it. Yes I am your CA Mom!
Most PCP’s, especially if you have a PPO, will make an effort to see you if you are miserable.
As for Urgent Care centers, yes generally they suck. BUT, sometimes they are the best alternative. If it’s a rainy night and you cut your hand in the kitchen and need stiches, go to Urgent Care, not a hospital. The hospitals will be busy with all kinds of fun. I learned that one form experience. :) Get well big guy!
September 29th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Thanks Craig! The cough is already clearing up a bit, which is good. Still there, but not a frequent or as hard. Yay anti-biotics.
September 29th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
It’s not just an urgent care thing. I had really nasty gall stones (read: more pain than you can imagine), and I still had to wait an hour to see someone at Cedar-Sinai. Welcome to US health care.